Upgrading OpenOffice on Asus EEE PC

There is a problem with OpenOffice 2.0 bundled with Asus EEE PC. This version is not capable to open some extensions, which are important. You might want to upgrade OpenOffice.org to work on those extensions.

First you need to remove the current version. Type the following command

sudo apt-get remove openoffice*

This command will remove the current version. Download the latest version and unpack the archive. Move to DEBS folder and type the following command

sudo -dpkg -i openoffice.org* 

If you wish to integrate the icons in KDE menu, you will have to move to desktop-integration directory inside DEBS and run the following command

sudo -dpkg -i openoffice*
Now if you are willing to run the program directly from /usr/bin without going inside the installation directory, you will have to create symbolic links.  Here are the commands to create symbolic links to /usr/bin

 sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/swriter /usr/bin/

sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/scalc /usr/bin/

sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/simpress /usr/bin/

sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/sbase /usr/bin/

sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/soffice /usr/bin/

sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/smath /usr/bin/

sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org2.3/program/sdraw /usr/bin/

Finally, you will have to edit the Easy mode also. In the easy mode editor, replace the command tabs with the following entries

For Documents, /usr/bin/swriter

For Spreadsheets, /usr/bin/scalc

For Presentations, /usr/bin/simpress

That’s all. Now you have the latest version installed on your EEE PC.